The Burning

Kalt opened his eyes; the wind was getting softer and now it was getting very cold. Kalt got off the swing and made his way down the hill,'what was mum going to cook tonight?' he wondered. Then another question came into his head; 'what do heroes eat on their travels? They wouldn’t have an oven to carry around with them...' Kalt burst out in a little giggle, he just imagined the hero carrying around an oven in his shorts or beard. 'That would be a funny sight to see.'

Kalt went through the gate that marked the beginning of the path to the top of the hill and walked along until he came along a row of houses close to the exit of Yuit. He said hello to the friendly neighbours who were putting the cat out or just walking home along the way. He walked right by the town’s exit gate and stared at it for a moment, out there was a world that he would join one day, he was sure of it. Kalt walked on and began pondering as to how he would make it in his head, ' 'it’s not as if a hero would come and take me away and-'

“BANDITS!”

The exit gate burst open and a man sweating from the brow came running down the road towards the houses and Kalt.

“BANDITS EVERONE! RUN FOR IT! BANDITS-ARG”

An axe hit his back making him fly forward and land right at Kalt’s feet. He started to crawl forward with the axe in his back towards the frozen little boy. He grabbed Kalt’s leg and looked up. “Run boy... run...”

Tears were running down Kalt’s shocked face as he watched the man dying before him and immediately looked around for a place to hide and saw a huge bush just off of the path. Kalt ran and jumped into the bush, cutting his clothes as he buried himself deep inside it and looked outside being as quiet as he could be.The man was still crawling forward when another man dressed in rag tag clothes and a bandana covering his face came over to him and started taunting him. More men in the same type of clothes starting running past him with swords and axes and torches as a few more stopped with the other bandit and made fun of the man on the floor.

“HA! Look here lads I got one!” said one bandit who walked close to the man and pulled the axe out despite the screams of pain from the man on the floor. Another bandit came up with a huge hammer and smashed it on the man’s head and the body stopped moving altogether.

“Whoever gets the least kills buys the drinks” cried out one bandit with a crossbow who started firing flaming bolts through random windows and started a fire within the houses, the bandits all let out their battle cries as they stormed into the town.

The bandits proceeded to go on a blood crazed rampage; innocent people who peeked outside to see what the commotion was were cut down immediately to the screams of their families, and to the cheers of the passing bandits. They smashed windows, stomped on pots, destroyed benches, bashed doors down and killed indiscriminately as they set fire to the quaint town of Yuit and the peaceful townsfolk.When the people began to realise what was happening, the panic spread faster than the fire and bandits themselves. Various men grabbed whatever they could, wood axes, kitchen knives, brooms, anything; in order to defend their homes as they yelled at their wives and children to escape when they could.

These men however were quickly dispatched, and the women and children unlucky enough to be the slowest of the escaping groups were mercilessly slaughtered, much to the amusement of the evil, sadistic men holding the killing weapons. The citizens of the town militia however were quick to react, many of them grabbed their wood cutting tools and dashed outside of their homes, some still putting their shoes on hopping along the way and began to form ranks within the town centre. The men of the town militia who were closer to the bandits however banded together several streets away from the pillaging bandits and assisted in evacuating the running families whilst slowly marching towards the bandits to act as a first line of defence.

Several bandits who got ahead of the group ran into these men, and were quickly overwhelmed and fell. As the first defence pushed forward, they were able to save several lives of the husbands and fathers who opted to stay behind to hold off the bandits to let their loved ones escape.The militia told them to escort their families to the lake where they could hide which they agreed to begrudgingly, hoping to help more by defending their homes.

Most of the men however were not so fortunate to be saved in time, as the first line defence pushed forward they saw more and more bodies of women and children, as well as more and more bandits executing the fathers and husbands whom they had overpowered. The town militia’s first line was soon thrown into disarray as they encountered more bandits, these men fought valiantly as they could against the handful of bandits they encountered. But the more they held them off the more men they lost, as well as the more bandits slipped by them to press into the town.

When the main body of bandits arrived on the scene the first line was broken within seconds, men who were committed to the position died where they stood, the others were stabbed in the back as they tried to retreat.Within minutes of them entering the town, dozens of houses were on fire and their inhabitants screams had filled the night, the remainder of the town militia from across the town had banded together and stood in the town centre with wood axes and hunting bows and gave out directions to the escaping people to get to safety. Some of the far ahead bandits ran into these men and were hit with arrows when they foolishly charged at the band.

More and more townsfolk escaped from their houses and were making their way across the burning side of the town into the safer areas trying to escape from the west gate and make their way down to the lake on the other side. The brave men in the houses stayed and fought the bandits in place of the fallen first line of the militia to let the women and children get away while the less brave men fled with the rest of the people. Those poor men who stayed were quickly slain against the well-armed bandits and many more townsfolk were killed trying to get away.

As soon as the main group of bandits got close to a house it burst into flames from the lit torches thrown through the window. The bandits pushed on through the streets while leaving a trail of dead or dying behind them and a quickly increasing dense fog of smoke from the fire, a few bandits stayed behind the rest to finish off anybody who didn’t die from the first strike they were given.

While all this carnage was going on; Walt was staring out of his window in disbelief as he saw the burning houses in the distance, Raru and the girls were standing together shaking from fear.Walt turned around and looked Raru dead in the eyes “bandits...its bandits... come on girls, geet ya stuff togeether, we’re leaving now!” The girls went into their room to get their stuff while Raru and Walt stared at each other with fear on their faces.

Raru was going blue and started talking hysterically “Kalt! What about Kalt, Walt?!”

Walt walked up to her and hugged her and looked back outside. “I ave’ ta find im’ Raru! I’m gonna go find im.”

Raru looked at her husband in distraught and tried to stop him from leaving as he went for the door. “We’re going with you, you could be killed!” Walt turned around and kissed her and wiped her tears away.

“Ya ave’ ta make sure the girls geet ta safety, I’ll meet ya at the lake in an hour with our lad Raru” Raru stared at Walt for a while biting her lip but eventually agreed.

Walt grabbed his coat and his wood axe and ran out of the door and down the street. Raru leaned out of the door on her knees and shouted “make sure you save our son Walt or I’ll never forgive you!” as she broke down into tears.

Walt ran down the street calling for his son as he went, he didn’t want to think that his son was already dead but his mind was racing with worst case scenarios. Several of the men from his street ran out of their doors with their wood axes and blacksmith hammers.

“Walt where’s Kalt?” some of the men cried.

“I’m lookin for im!’” he bellowed back as they raced for the town centre. The men saw Walt as a source of inspiration as he rushed into danger for his son and followed him heading straight for the bandit mob.

Walt was thinking differently however, he thought that while the men distracted the bandits, he could look for his son and so many others who hadn’t reached the town centre in time.

Story summary

Young Kalt has always dreamed of being a hero, and after his meeting with the wise (but very strange) old hero, Xectix. His life changes beyond his imagining, as he focuses on one aspect of life alone: Revenge.

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